Where have all the Aliens gone?

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Scott Bayo gave you pink eye.

 

uh... am i the only one on this board who believes in aliens/UFO's? If I understand it correctly, UFO sightings haven't at all vanished, they're still being regularly reported to the police, the media, and UFO research groups around the world. It's just that the mainstream media doesn't seem to pick up on these stories like they used to. One has to keep in mind that the vast majority of sightings aren't ever reported.

There is no doubt that UFO's exist. After all, the term ufo is short for "unidentified flying object", which can be anything from a bird to a plane to a weather balloon. Strictly speaking, the term 'UFO' doesn't at all translate as 'alien spacecraft', although that is what it almost always means.
Here's some interesting statistics i found in a book: Roughly 90-95% of all reported UFO's prove to be man-made aircraft or unrecognized natural phenomenon. Approx. 1.5-2% are outright hoaxes. The remaining 3-8.5% of all sightings are thise which appear to be aircraft of nonhuman origin. Most people are concered with this last group.
So there you have it, although most of it is explainable, there is always that slim margin which can't be explained aways so easily.

Ok there, i'm done

 

I think he was talking movies. There've been 10 ST movies, but only 1 SG movie IIRC. Another issue is the books: the market is absolutely flooded with ST books (literally hundreds, perhaps thousands), but I've yet to hear of a SG book anywhere.

It means that they're loyal to Trek, not some bastardized version that they slapped a label on. Enterprise was not Star Trek, and the viewership reflected that. The real ones lasted seven seasons each (except for the first one which was ahead of its time), but Enterprise didn't deserve even one episode.

 

*GASP*! What about the Tatooine bar scene? Plenty of ugly aliens! Or if you are looking for larger aliens, Jabba the Hutt. Cutesy, pah!


No, but you are correct: all of the main ones (as in, most of the movie) were not intense aliens...

 

I guess this thread is getting hijacked into a debate about sci-fi icons in pop culture.

I was referring to the movie, actually, and of course it's relevant. The show wouldn't exist without out the movie, and is based completely off of it - same characters and everything. And the topic of the thread is alien lore in popular culture in general. Since when did this turn into a discussion strictly about TV shows?

Well they sure as hell weren't packing theaters for Shatner's acting ability. No - there was a lot of mainstream public demand for Star Trek movies. My older brothers and their friends just about sh*t themselves every time a Star Trek movie came out, and they were all a bunch of jocks. Not Trekkies.

I don't know where you get this. Star Trek ended in 1969. The first movie came out in 1979, followed by 4 other Star Trek movies before TNG ever arrived on the air, all of which were blockbusters. How could they be a tie-in for a show that wasn't even on the air anymore? How exactly is one of the most successful movie franchises of all time (up to that point, at least) just showing off? Star Trek movies were packing theaters long after the original show had died, and long before anyone had any inkling a new series was coming down the pipe (which, I might add, was terribly received its first season). Movies don't make that much money and attract that much interest on fan-boys alone.

Well then knock off the snide retorts if this is all so tongue in cheek to you. It's not serious to me either, I just happen to think you don't totally know what you're talking about here, and felt like contesting you. Not as a mod, of course - but as a fellow poster. Oh yeah - and it's 42.

I'm sorry, but saying that Stargate is bigger than Trek ever was - despite 10 movies (most of which made tons of money and were very well received), 5 series (all on major networks), hundreds of books, an immense cultural impact and legions of Trekkies who pack convention halls to this day - is ridiculous. Compared to 1 movie and 2 series that, yes, while both are long running, definitely aren't indicators of widespread commercial popularity. It means they're filling a niche left empty by Trek, X-Files, Babylon 5, and, to some extent, Hercules and Xena. They've had a successful run because right now they're the only game in town. Neither SG show are on major networks (Sci-fi and Showtime aren't major) - hence, they aren't considered enough of a ratings draw for prime time. Every Star Trek show got prime-time billing, regardless of their quality. I'm not a Trekkie by any stretch and even I know that much.

So saying Stargate is bigger than Trek ever was is like saying the Backstreet Boys were bigger than The Beatles ever were. It's only true from a very narrow point of view, and even then it's a stretch.

 

I wouldn't go as far to say that I do believe in them, but I certainly believe it's possible.

I think that maybe (just maybe) these alien sightings are not aliens, but actually evolved humans travelling back in time to study us.

Of course, I've been known to be kinda silly too.

Oh yeah, Star Trek is THE BEST Sci-Fi series in the history of man-kind.

 

Excepting all other scifi series ever made, I agree completely.

 

Indeed. Oh, how I miss Babylon 5 ever so muchly.

All hail Emperor Londo Mollari II.

 

I think aliens have become mundane. We've seen the worst that they can do (Independence Day, War of the Worlds, Fire in the Sky, Signs) and we've seen the best that they can do (ET, Starman). It's hard to conceptualize them as any better, worse or different than the worn out realizations of them in our media.

"Alien" fear is greatest in times when peoples fears are more esoteric. Today our fears are real, gritty and close to home...doesn't leave too much room for alien musings. Fear of nuclear anihillation, cold war and commie threat tend to promote the mindset necessary for alien fears and sightings to promulgate.

On a side note, I find SG1 to be almost unwatchable. Aside from enjoying Harry Dean Anderson making fun of himself, I find the plot lines to be predictable and repetitive. Everytime I watch it I'm reminded of when I read it in an Arthur C. Clarke short story from 1963.

 

Since I can see defending that myself on the overdramatic crap you just threw at me (this wasn't a serious debate, Tal, and I wasn't aking it as seriously as you seem to be) will probably get this thread closed, or get me banned, I'll be finishing this in a PM later when I have more time.

 

Stargate ? Never heard of it....

As for main question, I was always wondering why UFO most often appears in the USA...hmmm...any ideas ?... ...

 

Then your taste is beyond repugnant. Star Trek had meaning; Enterprise was just a lame attempt to cash in on a name, not unlike all those horrendous movie sequels that ride only on the fame of the original. When Trek was trying to make a point, they built up to it and then revelealed it; when Enterprise did it, they shoved it in your face at the beginning and then kept jabbing you with it. To summarize: Trek had style , Enterprise didn't.

Even assuming evenly spread visits, there are a number of factors that would lead to Americans noticing it more. I'll leave it up to you to determine what those are.

 

No, I watched Enterprise, and that's why it's not Trek. The others were subtler; their plots distracted you until they were ready for the commentary reveal, though some running commentaries were in there as background (the only ones Enterprise did at least satisfactorily). Enterprise would smack you in the face with one-timers right away because that was blatantly what the epsiode (and plot) was all about.

Take the first HIV episode, for example. Anyone who watched it knows exactly which one I'm talking about, but if you were to ask the same kind of thing about an epsiode from the earlier series, you might actually get some people scratching their heads because it was camoflaged too well for them to get it (likely bottom of the barrel, but still).

Trek had plot with a moral; Enterprise had plot or a moral.

 

I have to agree with Blackthorne TA on this one - the original Star Trek series was about as subtle as a wrecking ball.

On top of that it had bad acting and incredibly corny writing. Still, it was fun while Enterprise just seemed to be tired and bland.

 

Stargate is still going??!! I thought that had been canned years ago! It's really still going? Next thing you're going to tell me that Three's Company is still going.

Anyway, I agree with Kitrax - alien (and ghost) sightings were much more interesting back in the pre-digital photography age. Those blurry UFO images and shadowy ghosts standing behind people in family portraits were brilliant but you'd never believe them nowadays.

 

Well, you got the last half of that right. I haven't seen much of the original series because I was far too young during that time to care about anything like that, and it's so scarce now and not really a priority with school and BG. But I did watch TNG, DS9, and Voyager pretty religiously when they were going; those series were definitely Trek.

Stargate pretty much flies under the radar lately here in the US, with only an occasional mention on the Sci-Fi channel. (Well, I don't know how everybody's local channels are, but mine consider it as dead as Sliders.)

And I think the aliens are closer than we think; how else do you explain Bush?